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Steven Coulson
Steven has been drinking beers, wines and spirits for decades and has a propensity to go about them at length after a few drinks.
Latest Posts
- 57/m: Love beer, but it doesn’t love me as much anymore
- No Stupid Questions Wednesday – ask anything about beer
- Does anyone else get treated like a beer snob for ordering literally anything that isn’t a macro lager?
- Is there a polite way to refuse a beer that’s being served in the wrong glassware without making everyone at the table uncomfortable?
- # What’s the most pretentious thing you’ve ever said about beer that you secretly didn’t understand yourself?
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The Craft of Craft Beer: Navigating Pretentious Terminology
As I find myself immersed in the craft beer community, it’s fascinating to witness the plethora of terms and phrases we use to describe our favorite brews. Just last weekend, during a bottle share event, I encountered a barrel-aged sour that prompted me to dive headfirst into an elaborate description. “I truly appreciated the characteristic brett interacting with the oak tannins to create some beautiful phenolic compounds!” I exclaimed, all the while feeling like a complete imposter, with little understanding of what “phenolic compounds” even entailed.
In that moment of pretentious articulation, I couldn’t help but smirk at my own naivety. I was cobbling together wine jargon with snippets of information I had perhaps gleaned from a brewing podcast. Strangely enough, everyone around me nodded in agreement as if they were taking in the profundity of my words. Fueled by the apparent affirmation, I ventured further into this fortress of terminology, stating something about the beer “expressing local terroir through indigenous microflora.”
It was then I realized I may have strayed into farcical territory. Just a month prior, I found myself discussing a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity,” when all I truly meant was that it had a thick, satisfying texture. It struck me: much of what we utter in the craft beer world could easily be likened to a mad lib—filling in the blanks with terms we half-understand and hoping no one pulls back the curtain to reveal our lack of genuine comprehension.
This raises an intriguing question: Do others share this sentiment? Are we all weaving elaborate tapestries of craft beer language, nervously dodging the chance of being called out for our somewhat hollow expressions? Or, perhaps, is there a hidden charm in this playful banter, where we collectively embrace the art of conversation without the need for expertise?
In a culture rich with creativity and craft, it seems our love for beer transcends mere technicalities. So let’s raise our glasses to the shared experiences, the joy of discovery, and yes, even to those moments when we may not fully understand the intricacies of the brew we’re savoring. After all, it’s the communal appreciation of these flavors that truly brings us together, don’t you think?